International studies-global childhood Essay

This article written about the number of children who die on daily basis from various reasons is intended to inform the general globe community of the deaths so that appropriate measures can be taken to counter the trend. Anup points out that this is a global issue as it affects everybody in the world in regard to social, political, economical and environmental aspects. According to me, child mortality or the death of children is a global issue which should be ignored but instead should be given a priority by every authority since it affects virtually everyone either directly or directly (Shah, 2010). Just as Anup states in the Article, the number of children who die on daily basis is a matter of international concern. Anup further outlines the importance of understanding the issue of child mortality. He points out that the child mortality rate is significant in that it is a gauge to assess the general wellbeing of children and specifically the child health. To begin with, Anup mentions that it evaluates the end results of the development process of a country rather than the input. It evaluates concepts like the capital calorie accessible or the ratio of medical personnel to the population which are an essential towards achieving positive child welfare (Shah, 2010). Anup notes that child mortality rate is dependent on a number of factors which include nutritional status and the mothers ‘knowledge on health matters, the degree of immunization and the accessibility of maternal and child health services. Other determinants of child mortality rate are availability of food and clean and safe drinking water. The entire safety of the child’s environment also contributes to child mortality rate (Shah, 2010). Child mortality rate is not affected by mathematical computations like average. GNI per capita for instance will be affected by average because the natural scale places the children wealth people at a 1,000 times chance of surviving as although the human-designed scale which does not place them at equal position in regard to income (Shah, 2010). This information including the figure is accurate and reliable since it has been summarized from UNICEF findings. A do agree with Anup that this is enough justification of the significance of understanding child mortality. This is particularly because UNICEF is very elaborate on child issues and usually provides relevant and accurate information concerning children issues (Shah, 2010). The writer compares the figure of the number of children who die on daily basis with well known world disasters in order to create a clear picture of the issue in question. Anup equates the figure to the number of people who succumbed to the 2010 Haiti earthquake if had to occur every 9-10 days and the 2004 Asian tsunami if it were to occur every ten days (Shah, 2010). The writer has further justified his report by quoting the sources of the data that he used for comparison. The figure of the number of the victims who died from the Haiti earthquake was taken from the reliable BBC reports (BBC, 2010). He converts the figure to various ratios in order to bring out a more concrete outline of the seriousness of the issue. For instance he mentions that the 24,000 children dying every minute is equivalent to a single child dying after every 3. 6 seconds or close to 9 million children dying in each year. According to Anup, 79 million children died between the years 2000 and 2007 (Shah, 2010). He has used various simple graphs to illustrate the trend of child mortality rate. The causes of this large number of deaths are poverty, hunger and certain diseases and illness that that can either be cured or prevented (Shah, 2010). The writer is also surprised at the manner in which this disaster is not in the headlines. He mentions that just as the global community responds to other disasters like the disastrous earthquakes, it should respond similarly to the escalating child mortality rates (Shah, 2010). I support the writer in this aspect because little has been documented on child mortality rates. This has further worsened the problem because many authorities, agencies or organizations that could offer significant help to bring this disaster under control have completely ignored the issue or have not taken it with the seriousness it deserves. This is partly because the issue is not found in the headlines (Shah, 2010). Conclusion I support Anup’s report that the issue of child mortality rate has not been taken with the magnitude that it deserves by the world’s authorities, agencies and any relevant organization. This issue should be regarded as a disaster because the number of children dying every day from the various causes is even larger than that resulting from some of the world’s worst tragedies like the Haiti earthquake (BBC, 2010). The issue is rarely placed in the headlines and thus fails to attract the appropriate attention. Child mortality rate is very important in assessing the general wellbeing of children. Child mortality rate further affects political, social, political and environmental issues in the globe either in a direct or an indirect manner (Global issues, 2010).

The Affects of the Media on Society

The term media can be defined as a wide variety of things. For the purpose of this paper, it will be defined as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it; as â€Å"†¦an agency, by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred† (2000). The co.uk/todd-gitlin-summary-on-media/">media’s role in society is an extremely prevalent topic especially in today’s day and age. The media has continuously been used as a scapegoat for the lack of other excuses for abnormal behaviors in America’s teenagers. This was obvious with the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School near Denver, CO. The media is the easiest and most common thing to blame for teen’s behavior. Their video games, their music, everything that they listen to or watch on their own time is to blame for their behaviors, rather than poor parenting, lack of support at school or lack of noticing on anybody’s behalf that something was wrong with these two boys. Columbine is the number one instance that pops into our minds from recent memory when we contemplate the notion of media affecting our society and our societal behaviors. It was taken to the point that Marilyn Manson was being interrogated in regards to how he felt about the massacre. Parents, teachers and community members alike all believed that his music had a major influence on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two gunmen, and their actions that day in April. To this day, it is still a widely debated subject as to what caused these two teenagers to kill twelve of their classmates and one of their teachers before killing themselves. As far as teen behavior in general goes, it is common that society blames the media for the actions of the youth even when they as a society are the ones that create the media and the guidelines for it to be presented to the youths. Video games are the main thing that society is blaming, but television shows such as â€Å"Jackass† and â€Å"Viva La Bam† are holding their own in the lineup of things to blame. Teenagers are in a moldable, mutable state in the first place without being influenced by images of idiocy and lack of respect for everything. Thus, the reason behind why parents are putting their foot down in regards to video games such as â€Å"Vice City† and the recent â€Å"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!† The creators of the video game â€Å"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!† are not just sitting back listening to the criticism of their game. They have something to say about the reason it exists in the first place. They say â€Å"†¦This game is intended to deepen the understanding of the shooting and its possible causes. What the player takes out of it is ultimately dependant upon what the player puts into it† (Ledonne, 2005). It is easy to blame video games for abnormal behaviors, but in reality, people are just indirectly blaming themselves. Society demands a certain type of media, and so, that is what they get. They get a game full of violence, killing, stealing cars, etc. All because that is what society is begging the video game industry to produce whether they know it or not. This is not to say that there are teenagers out there that are indeed being influenced by this craze that has swept the nation in recent times. According to an article on the SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) website, in Sarasota, Florida apparently â€Å"†¦Influenced by the movie Jackass, three trespassing teens leap[t] from atop a condominium building aiming for the pool. Two ma[d]e it. One hit[] the side, fracturing both legs and an arm and cracking his pelvis†¦.† (Wallace, 2003). Although it is easy to claim that the media, such as video games and television, has a minor affect on teens in today’s society this is not always true. There are always going to be those few kids that think it would be fun to do what they see on TV or on their videogames. Overall, when all media, including video games are taken to account, it is fairly clear that although we cannot completely blame the media for the actions of teenagers in America, we can blame it for a lot of what they do. A teenager’s main goal in life is to be cool. Simple, clear cut. They just want to be part of the cool crowd. So what do they do? They look to things that the cool crowd watches, wears and how they act. They then try to mimic these things in a futile attempt to become cool. Sometimes, teens get out of hand, and things such as the kids in Sarasota, FL happen. It is only then that we realize how much of an influence the media does indeed have on us, and not just us but our posterity as well. Citations (2000). Medium. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition Web site: http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/M0195100.html Ledonne, Danny (2005). Super columbine massacre RPG!. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from Super Columbine Massacre RPG! Web site: http://www.columbinegame.com/ Wallace, Stephen G (2003). Short Circuit. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from SADD:Students Against Destructive Decisions Web site: http://sadd.org/oped/short.htm

Education System in Desperate need of Change Essay

Sir William Haley once said, â€Å"Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it†. If students were guaranteed to leave school with knowing of what they don’t know and the desire to continue learning, the method of learning will be correct. Today’s education system does not give students the opportunity to enjoy what they are learning. The banking method, where students are empty vessels which educators must deposit knowledge into, deprives them of creativity and the desire to learn. No child is given the chance to shine and be unique. Students today are simply being placed on a conveyer belt, sorted, and then labeled according to their so called intelligence. We need an education system that provides a slower learning method, a method where you focus on what is being learned instead of zipping through it, and the freedom to make mistakes as this will electrify and stimulate students to fulfill their potential. We must recognize students as individuals and keep in mind their diverse backgrounds. In â€Å"Lives on the Boundary,† Rose states, â€Å"The canon has intended to push to the margins much of the literature of our nation: from American Indian songs and chants to immigrant fiction to working-class narratives† (100). The messages that are received from the text are crucial. The students need to be able to relate to what they have before them. One of the problems with today’s education system is we are given material to read, memorize, and expected to repeat it back at the snap of a finger. But without the ability to relate and connect with the material, the learning doesn’t take place. Everything that is read or being said is just going through one ear and out the other. By adding relatable texts, you add life to learning. In â€Å"Learning in the Key of Life,† Jon Spayde states, â€Å"people cannot learn what they do not love† (69). When students are reading or learning about a subject they love, they are inspired and motivated to learn more. This alone can benefit the learning process for students. It becomes much easier to grasp concepts learned in class. Today’s education system does not allow all students to thrive in their own way. It is fast paced with limited space for creativeness. We are given large amounts of information at a time and attempt to move as quickly as possible through all that we can. There is never â€Å"time† to stay longer on a topic. The instructors try their hardest to keep the pace, but this way of teaching does not benefit any student. In â€Å"Learning in the Key of Life†, Jon Spayde states, â€Å"†¦we are focusing far too much of our energy and resources on fast knowledge, ignoring all the richness and meaning slow knowledge adds to our lives† (68). When the focus is on just getting through the material, we are skipping over the value and richness of slow knowledge. Instead of zipping through a lesson because it needs to be done by a certain day to move onto the next, the focus needs to be on what is being learned than making a time requirement. Spayde also states, â€Å"You can figure out what you can do pretty quickly, but the ethical understanding of what you ought to do comes slowly†. We need to adopt the slow learning method, without it we are missing out on more than we think. There is so much more to learning than getting through the material, the purpose of it is to benefit and gain from it. With slow knowledge we will achieve this. One of the most important changes that needs to be done is the view on mistakes. In the article, â€Å"How to Make Mistakes,† Dennett states, â€Å"Mistakes are not just golden opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning something truly new†. When fear is being put into a student to never make a mistake, their education is stunted. They lose the ability to explore and take the chance of being wrong because they are repeatedly punished for being incorrect. When a mistake is made, students will learn where they went wrong and will then grow from it. The key to progress is making mistakes. The reason we are in school is to learn, but with this opportunity taken away from students their ability to learn is ripped from their grasp. Daniel C. Dennett also states, â€Å"You should seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them†. Instead of using all of their energy to attempt to be perfect and run from being inaccurate, every student should look for every opportunity to be wrong. Without errors, the students can not accomplish much. If you look at Todays’ education system is in desperate need of change. No student is given the opportunity to show what they are fully capable of. Instead they are told what they can do. They are simply labeled and placed where they â€Å"should be†. But when students begin to pursue their mistakes and soak in the richness of slow knowledge, they will begin to truly learn. Maria Montessori once said, â€Å"If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind? †. If many students are having difficulty learning in the method we have created ages ago, why not change it? The time is now and there is no time to waste. We must refocus this outdated system to insure that the students will have a secure future and keep the standard of living that we have today.

The effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the investment in the Gulf Research Paper - 2

The effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the investment in the Gulf area and Qatar(different copy) - Research Paper Example The initial impact of the financial crisis was felt partly in some Arab states depending on their participation in the international markets (Qatar 6). Impact on Finance and Economy The 2008 global economic crisis affected the financial markets of countries in the Gulf region. In many states, the stock exchange index declined by nearly 62% in 2008. By 2009, the projected GDP growth rates had fallen from 3.5% to 0.5% (Rocha & Subika 71). In addition, the economic growth decreased by more than 3% in the same year. With the exception of Qatar and Yemen, most states in the gulf area have projected lower GDP growth rates. The cornerstone of Qatar’s’ economy is petroleum. Most of the government revenue, export earnings, and GDP are derived from oil reserves and gas exports. Qatar is the third producer and exporter of oil in the world making it the richest country in the world (Rocha & Subika 71). Effects on banking The banking sector in Qatar escaped the impact of the financi al crisis. Most banks all over the world lost their role as creditors and financiers because of the crisis. Banks in Qatar posted big profits in the Gulf Cooperation Council markets in 2009 despite the financial crisis (Sheng 45). ... Qatar’s Central Bank has taken measures particularly in the real estate sector. Qatari Central Bank issues instructions on buying of shares and financing of real estate projects. Decisions of lowering interest rates, enhancing the compulsory reserve ratios and other key issues in management of banks have been properly addressed in accordance with market mechanism. Qatar’s monetary policy is risk free due to the sound policies implemented to attract foreign markets (Rocha & Subika 65). Economic growth and Employment Before the financial crisis, the gulf region had numerous job opportunities in the world. The financial crisis led to a decline in job opportunities in the gulf area. Total employment decreased greatly. Research shows that the percentage of women seeking employment also increased in the region due to the effects of the financial crisis that caused slow economic growth, inflation, and economic meltdown. Agriculture and manufacturing that were once the main sou rces of employment are now less competitive because of the export of goods to the global markets. It is difficult for women and girls to find jobs that are considered gender appropriate (Sheng 34). The financial crisis led to a decline in labour productivity in the non-oil sectors in the Gulf region and especially in Qatar. An expectation of future pick up in labour has led to hoarding resulting and reduced productivity of labor. Recent conducted analysis shows that the working age and gender have a great impact on the labour force. The global crisis has led to a reduction in migrant remittances. Migrants are important because they contribute to the labor force in the

Family Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Family Culture - Essay Example He migrated to the US at 24 years of age with my grandmother who was 21 years old in the year 1954. Hispanic immigrants in the US have been working aged and disproportionately young (Bodvarsson and Berg, 2009, p. 319). My father was born one year later in the US. At that time, women did not work outside home; rather they took care of the domestic matters that included washing, cleaning, and babysitting the children. My grandfather taught at a public school and earned the money for the family. Being the financial provider of the family in an era when the society was primarily dominated by men, my grandfather was both the established head and the actual head of the family. My grandfather paid the bills. Since my grandmother was educated and my grandfather often did not have time to attend parent-teacher meetings, my grandmother would go whenever a teacher requested a meeting. Although the sole breadwinner of the family was my grandfather, yet he always consulted my grandmother in impor tant matters. So the disciplinary rules were primarily imposed by my grandfather, though my grandmother played an active role in maintaining them and making sure they were followed. One thing that my grandfather regrets is that he did not allow my grandmother to work. Those were difficult times since a new family was trying to fit in a new culture, and yet my grandfather did not allow my grandmother to contribute to the family financially while she was capable of doing that. However, my grandmother utilized the time she had at home reading books and journals and increasing her knowledge to the extent that she could administer quite a lot of home remedies successfully. She learnt the names of botanical herbs to cure different sorts of illnesses and diseases. To maintain good health, my grandparents placed a lot of emphasis on physical workout, particularly walk. In the 1950s, cars and vehicles were not as common as they are today. Most of the people walked their way to their homes an d offices. My grandparents used to walk as much in a day that I probably walk in three days. Other than that, the family of my grandparents consumed organic diet and primarily vegetables. My grandmother is a strict vegetarian to date and is in very good health. Things changed in my family culture 25 years later when my father completed his graduation. While my grandfather had got married at the age of 24, my father did not marry until the age of 32 years. My mother was also 30 years of age at the time of marriage. Both of my parents work and support the family financially. While the established head of our family is my father, the actual head is my mother. When a teacher requests a meeting, sometimes both go and sometimes either of the two goes, depending upon who is available. In our family, accountability is collective and the responsibilities are shared (cdc.gov, n.d., p. 2). Both my mother and my father are breadwinners for the family, but the disciplinarian is my mother. A majo r faux pas committed in the household is the fact that my mother couldn’t find enough time for her children in their infancy. We have a family doctor to administer the home remedy. To maintain good health, my family believes that one should regularly exercise and avoid junk food. A detailed analysis

The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution Research Paper

The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution - Research Paper Example One of the important amendments of the Constitution is the 8th Amendment and its significance lies in the fact that it has, though the years, promoted humane and civilized forms and methods of punishing criminals. This amendment is adopted from an ancient English law and incorporated into the US Constitution at the time its framers were drafting the basic law of the land. The History of the 8th Amendment The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution states thus: â€Å"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed and no cruel, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.† The 8th Amendment was first suggested by James Madison, the fourth president of the US, for inclusion to the US Constitution while the framers were working on its draft. The Commonwealth of Virginia, from where Madison hailed, had its own version of the passage incorporated in its Declaration of Rights. Its origin, however, was the 1689 English Bill of Rights. The inclusion of this passage in t hat law was to limit English courts from imposing punishments and fines that were excessive, cruel and unusual as was the practice of the English courts in the time of the House of Stewarts under King James VI who would impose such punishments such as quartering, boiling alive, disemboweling, decapitation and crushing criminals with heavy weights (Gill 114). On the other hand, the â€Å"excessive bail† clause was included in the 1689 law to prevent the English judges from circumventing the Habeas Corpus Act of 1969 by setting bail at very high amounts so arrested persons were unable to meet them. Finally, the â€Å"excessive fines† clause was also â€Å"intended to limit only those fines directly imposed by, and payable to, the government† (Excessive Bail 2011). Cases Involving the 8th Amendment Most of the cases decided by the US Supreme Court involving the 8th Amendment are related to the issue of the death penalty and its possible infringement of the â€Å"c ruel and unusual punishment† clause of the 8th Amendment. Some of the well-known cases involving the 8th Amendment are: Weems v US 217 US 349 (1910); Stack v Boyle 342 US 1 (1951); Furman v Georgia 408 US 238 (1972); Gregg v Georgia 428 US 153 (1976); Browning-Ferris Industries v Kelco Disposal, Inc 492 US 257 (1989), and; Austin v US 509 US 602 (1993). In Weems v US, the US Supreme Court held that the â€Å"cruel and unusual punishment† clause of the 8th Amendment can apply not only to court punishments, but also to legislative laws and rendered the punishment of 14 years of imprisonment with hard labor on top of civil and political disabilities as disproportionate to the crime of falsifying public documents. In Furman v Georgia, the Court ruled that the manner of imposing the death penalty in which there is an absence of standard to guide the jury as to when to impose the death penalty is â€Å"cruel and unusual† and therefore unconstitutional. However, in Greg g v Georgia, the Court clarified that the death penalty per se does not infringe the 8th Amendment so long as its imposition is not purely discretionary to the jury and laws exist that define the crimes that should be meted with the death penalty. In Stack v Boyle, the Court held that setting bail at an

Weighing the Value, Benefits & True Cost of Outsourcing Information Research Paper

Weighing the Value, Benefits & True Cost of Outsourcing Information Technology - Research Paper Example Information Technology outsourcing is a great way to achieve the organizational objectives in an efficient and cost effective manner. However if practiced properly the benefits of IT outsourcing goes beyond than just mere outsourcing. Outsourcing offer significant business impact that leads to a stable, secure and most importantly a robust business unit that operates like a well oiled machine. The main fundamental of business process outsourcing is to outsource the mundane task to the specialists so that the organization can focus upon the core activities. As a matter of fact that is the very basic root cause of any form of IT outsourcing. However it must also be mentioned that there is another angle to the whole outsourcing saga. As the business landscape gets more and more competitive and the global economy gets unpredictable, a significant effort can be seen on the part of the companies to reduce size of the business units and budgets. Now getting into the shoes of an entrepreneur it is pretty safe to say that it is more likely that the entrepreneur would look to reduce the size of a business department that doesn’t include in the checklist of the core business activities. Such factors are the catalysts behind the rise of outsourcing business. The study has been conducted in lieu of determining the productivity benefits of IT outsourcing and to go beyond the cost effectiveness aspect of IT outsourcing (Delen, 2009. p. 25). A business of any organization irrespective of the size is quite likely to be familiar with recurrent challenges. The chances get even higher in the modern volatile economy. Some of the most familiar challenges include limited budget, shortage of quality manpower, assigning manpower keeping their core competency in mind. To make things harder there is constant need of technology enablement in almost every business department. Whatever be the situation it is pretty needless to say

Restructuring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Restructuring - Essay Example One of the essential steps the business should be prepared to take is to restructure. A need to restructure will not only come from financial problems, but it could be because of competition, change in market trends and demand, new market or need for a merger (Wang, 2010; Business Wales, 2014). Although this might be the only way out for a business to regain its competitive value, a poorly done restructuring process can end up causing more damage to the company than good. It is for this reason that planning is key for any business to be successful through the restricting process for example Starbucks and Twitter. The key steps that these companies took involved a diagnosis of their status, plan on the steps to take, and finally implemented the change (Bush, 2014). The important lesson in the case of Starbucks and Twitter is to understand when it is time to restructure and to have a well-prepared plan to carry out the process. Business Wales. (2014, February 5). Reorganisations, restructuring and other major changes. Retrieved from Business Wales:

International marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International marketing - Essay Example The Arab cuisine ay emphasis on the following items such as lamb and chicken preparation in the meat products, dairy products mainly consist of butter, yoghurt, white cheese and cream, herbs and spices that are mainly used are a mixture of mint and thyme known as za’atar, other spices include saffron, sesame, cumin, garlic, cinnamon, sumac, lentils comprise of chickpeas and favabeans, and most popular dressings of such cuisines comprise of olive oil, parsley, mint, etc. The company that is planning for its product launch in the international market is Al Qasr that is one of the famous names in Arabic cuisines and the restaurant chain is known for its Arabian delicacies, wide range of deserts and appetizers, and Lebanese cuisine. Al Qasr has been operating in Arabic regions for many years and meets the consumer tastes and preferences through its innovative dishes with traditional flavors. United States as the target market for the company offers great opportunity as the political conditions are stable of the country and even the consumer market has high disposable income and living standards. The demand is high in this market for Arabic cuisines because of its flavors and variety. Many companies have invested in this market because of its stable environmental factors and availability of raw materials, capital and labor. The target market for the Arabic cuisines to be launched by the company would be upper middle income and higher income group who prefer to dine at restaurants mostly in weekends. The other demographic factors comprise of age and for this specific cuisine the age group would be above 25 years who prefers to try out different cuisines apart from the fast food which are generally more preferred by the young generation under 20 years. Competition is very tough in the US market as it a hub for many companies serving different cuisines such as European

Wireless Security Best Practices Guide for Business Essay

Wireless Security Best Practices Guide for Business - Essay Example Every company in today’s world is run on wireless network technology. Local Area Networks, generally called LANs, are privately-owned networks within a single building or campus of up to a few kilometers in size. They are widely used to connect personal computers and workstations in company offices and factories to share resources and exchange information. Deploying wireless LAN or wireless network is something like a pilot without instructions to fly an aircraft. One will probably get off the ground; the next thing is probably a matter of chance, someone is likely to get hurt. As it is defined in RFC 2196, the IETS’s site Security Handbook, a security policy is a formal set of rules through which people who are given access to organization’s technology and information assets must abide to. There are many kinds of security policies such as Password Policies, Remote Access Policies, Mobile Device Policies, Vulnerability Assessment Policies, Acceptable Use policies and Wireless Communication Policies. The assets protected by each one of the policies are different but, they all share common agenda. The security policy has the following important specifications to follow for the best benefit. Devices such as notebooks, handhelds, portables, personal digital assistants, smart phones, etc. which are issued by the Information Technology Department should be permitted to get access to the company internal network through wireless technology. Devices should be checked to have pre-configured with necessary operating system and security software which provides an encrypted tunnel (virtual private network) for network traffic; encrypts device hard drives; screens and removes virus and other malware; supports extended user authentication dialog; supports remote file backups; updates software when the software resident on the device is out of date; prevents

Womem and men and media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Womem and men and media - Essay Example Consequently, many young girls often adopt approaches that jeopardize their health to attain skinny and or curvy figures that flush across television screens and also take center stage in the cover of many magazines. Moreover, the portrayal of female bodies in the media has significantly sexualized both male and female teenagers at tender ages leading to high moral decadence in the society. As such, this topic deserves much attention, especially at this time of high technological advances and emergence of technology savvy generation. Over the past decades, the media has been tirelessly working to construct the ideal image of what a beautiful woman should look like. Television channels, movies, and magazines among other media platforms have brainwashed young girls with misinformation about certain features that they must acquire in order to be considered beautiful. Deviating from the traditional definition of beauty, the media features pictures of models with thin bodies and other features that fit the media’s definition of beauty. Young girls often want to associate with television anchors or models they usually see in advertisements that plague the media. In order to be as close to the perfect woman, young ladies have taken to risky approaches to attain the shape and color of the images that keep hitting their eyes and filling their imaginations of what a beautiful woman should look like. In order to attain the body sizes that the media uphold as beautiful, young women have resorted to unhealthy eating habits. Some of the skip most meals in order to reduce their body weights so that they can match the size of a â€Å"perfect woman† while others use skin lightening products so that they can achieve the complexion of â€Å"perfect women† that they see more often in the televisions, magazines, movies and even social websites. Skipping

Diploma in Business Essay Example for Free

Diploma in Business Essay Describe how marketing techniques are used to market products in two organizations.P2- describe the limitations and constrains of marketing.M1- compare marketing techniques used in marketing products in Two organizations. Answer: P1 I am going to be talking about how marketing techniques are used to market products in two different organizations.Marketing is the process of understanding the market, within which a business operates and satisfying customers, needs in order to meet the objects of the business. The role of marketing within a particular organization will depend on the organization overall objectives. The object of many businesses is to make a profit, but it not the purpose of many voluntary and public (government owned) organization, although marketing is as equally important for them. In order successfully identify, anticipate and satisfy customer ‘needs, a businesses need to carry out market research to assess its competitive position and its customers’ needs.Once a business knows more about its customers and competitors it can set clear and smart marketing objectives. Unit 1 Different types of business activity and ownership Pass 1 A) Type of businesses activity If I live in a city of any size especially in an area where new people are moving in people are increasingly using the Internet to find local businesses. Microsoft cant be local because people search jobs by region: United States, Europe and Asia etc. Oxfam is a local as well such as located in Watford High Street. Some of the businesses that can be helped by local Internet marketing include: chiropractor, computer retailer, travel agent, locksmith, massage therapist, insurance agent, real estate agent, mortgage broker, maid service hardware retailer, plumber, auto repair etc. How to use the Internet to market a local or regional business. There are many businesses in UK. It is located sites across a country. For example, Microsoft Company is found in Cambridge that is UK. Of course Oxfam is collecting money to save people and it is every where in the UK, i.e. London, Hertfordshire, Oxford shire and Birmingham etc. they will be called National Businesses. An International business company is a legal entity incorporated in a tax haven which is free from all local taxes (except small fixed annual fees). Typically the IBC  cannot conduct business in the country of incorporation. Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 organizations working with over 3000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. Microsoft International Careers Newsletter, a free quarterly e-publication that will give us timely information on career opportunities at Microsoft, i.e. from Europe somewhere else. Both Microsoft and Oxfam are global companies, but Microsoft careers can take us to a global presence. They offer opportunities around the world to make an impact with the next generation of technology theyre building today. Political factors: include legal aspects (e.g. Microsoft copyright), the general political ethos. Economic factors: Marketers need to consider the state of a trading economy in the short and long-terms. This is especially true when planning for international marketing. to look at: Economic factors include the effect of the economy (e.g. Int erest rates) on individuals, and on organisations. Social factors: The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country. It is very important that such factors are considered. Factors include demographic change (e.g. Oxfam is concerned of changes in proportion of age groups and educational changes.), other changes in social habits (where people go to shop, leisure expectations), Technological factors: Technology is vital for competitive advantage, and is a major driver of globalization. Consider the following points: There are obviously a wide range of technological factors affecting libraries and information centres (e.g. Microsoft Internet, telecommunications, and the media in which people expect to find information). Section 2 National and international laws: International laws are created by international bodies; in particular Britain can be affected by European Union laws. The European Union courts are increasingly important in making judgements which apply across the Union. European Union laws are regarded as having supremacy over national laws. * Employment: Over time a body of law or legislation has developed governing employer/employee relations and the rights of employees and employers in the workplace. The Working Time Directive, 1999 Both businesses must guarantee to all employees a maximum 48 hours working week, and a four week holiday. Employees can choose to opt out of the Working Time requirement and agree to work longer hours if they wish. * Contracts: Oxfam employees have rights under their contract of employment. An employment  contract is a legal agreement between an employer and an employee, setting out the terms on which one agrees to employ the other. The plan must set out where the business wants to go, the aims and objectives, and details of how they will accomplish these aims; it is referred to as the strategy. Aims and objectives: The aims of the companies depend on the kind of business they are. For example, the aims of Oxfam will be quite different from those of Microsoft. A firm needs to have a clear sense of direction that should be clearly communicated to all stakeholders. The aims of the businesses that can be split into objectives. The objectives set out more specifically how the aim can be achieved. For example, the aim of the Microsoft is to be the worlds leading software supplier. The objective is to undercut the price of rivals; to take over other similar makers; to increase sales by giving discount price to the customers so this shall increase the needs of the company. Internal structures: The two chosen businesses are Microsoft and Oxfam vital to generate a structure that will enable them to better meet the needs of their stakeholders. For example, an essential part of the structure of a private company is the Board of Directors with the MD at the top. By giving high priority to the Board means that the interests of the owners (stakeholders) are given priority. However, the companies need to predict for the customers that are very significant organisational structure needs to ensure there are obvious links to customers. For example, the businesses can give priority to the position of customer service managers. Make a judgement about the importance of these factors on the organisation concerned. Factors Organisations can be concerned on Political Funding Wars and conflict Government policies Elections Political trends Government term and change Trading polices Economic Interest and exchange rates Taxation changes specific to product/services Disposable income Job growth/unemployment Import/export ratios Production level Internal sources of finance i.e. banks, hire purchase, leasing and etc.

Overview Of General Motors And Toyota

Overview Of General Motors And Toyota With the global economic crisis and energy crisis, automotive sales fell to their lowest per-capita levels, putting automakers under enormous financial pressure. All automotive manufacturers have been severely affected, with most reporting significant losses in the last two year. This affects all automotive producers including global automotive giants like General Motors (GM) and TOYOTA. If we consider GM and TOYOTA alone, both companies lost a great deal of sales and had to adjust themselves according to these unexpected conditions. Especially GMs liquidity fell rapidly to levels below those needed to operate the company. At the same time, because of TOYOTAs well defined production processes and their high quality production, TOYOTA could provide healthier competition over General Motors, which facilitate TOYOTA to take over the global industry leadership from GM. As the main objective of this report is to carry out a detailed analysis in relation to the above mentioned situation and come up with some feasible international strategic movement that can be used to take back the industry leadership from TOYOTA by General Motors. Overview Overview of General Motors General Motors, founded in 1908 September by William C. Duran. General Motors Corporation (GM) is more than one century year old Multinational Corporation, which has been maintaining the automobile industry leadership over the last 80 years. GM employs approximately 244,500 people around the world, across all its brands. General Motors provides a wide range of vehicle priced from US$10,000 to US$100,000+ catering to various customer segments all over the world from middle to luxury class automobiles. Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Cadillac, GM Daewoo, Hummer and Opel brands are some of their best brands. At the turn of the 21st century, it was prevalent that the environment needed to be preserved. General Motors began creating vehicles that were more environmental friendly. GM has innovated itself by creating fuel-efficient vehicles, bio fuels and hybrids. Since its inception, it has expanded to sell cars and trucks in 140 countries across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. In 2008, GM sold 8.35 million vehicles. GMs largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. Below table represents GMs Global Vehicles sales and Market share in 2008: Overview of TOYOTA The TOYOTA Motor Corp. (TMC) was established in 1933. The founder of TOYOTA was Kiichiro Toyoda. As the main operational difference, TOYOTA is a process-oriented company whereas most companies are results-oriented, focused on how much they can make or sell or how much money they can make in a quarter. TOYOTA sells its vehicles in more than 170 countries and regions. TOYOTAs primary markets for its automobiles are Japan, North America, Europe and Asia. Continued Success of TOYOTA As you see in the Figure 1, TOYOTA had a continuous growth over the last few years. TOYOTA designed their vehicles with a greater customer satisfaction and sales satisfaction by focusing quality, price, design, performance, safety, reliability, economy and utility. Figure 1 TOYOTA continuously introduced various innovative success models such as environmental friendly Hybrid Luxury Cars to expand their vehicle range. TOYOTAs market growth drastically resulted to decline GMs sales within the US market as well as in the global market and ultimately TOYOTA could become the global industrial leadership by defeating the global automobile giant, General Motors. Why GM Failed? General Motors Faced Problems General Motors (GM) lost their industry leadership and faced the worst economic downturn during the last two years. Consumers have had to contend with illiquid credit markets, rising unemployment, declining incomes and home values, and volatile fuel prices. Industrys competition provided a major contribution towards the GMs failure. In addition to this immense competition from the other global automobile companies, following two economic and industrial issues provided a radical pressure towards GMs comedown. 1. Global Economic Decline The global financial crisis really started to show its effects in the middle of 2007 and into 2009. Around the world stock markets have drastically fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been bought out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems. New car purchases dropped significantly in U.S. in the final quarter of 2008. The US auto sales for 2008 stood at 13.2 million down 18 percent from 16.1 million in 2007. Because of this General Motors faced significant slump in their revenues. 2. Automotive Industry Crisis The automotive industry crisis of 2008-2009 was a part of a global financial downturn. The crisis primarily affected the American automobile manufacturing industry other than to the Asian and European markets. Further the automotive industry was weakened by a considerable increase in the prices of automotive fuels because of the energy crisis. By 2008, the situation had turned critical as the credit crunch placed pressure on the prices of raw materials. Blunders of General Motors (GM) Other than to the above 2 global economic and industrial issues, General Motors further made following internal blunders as well: a). Unstylish Design GM customers were not satisfy with the last 10 years GM car models, basic reason was GM primarily wanted to keep the costs low, they compromised the design. b). High Cost Production GM has not utilized their plant capacity for maximum benefit. The other reason was the high labor cost especially because of the high employee salaries and given benefits, GM had to spend a large amount of production cost along with the high maintenance cost of their plants in United States. c). Wrong Pricing Strategies After the crisis happened, GM radically cut their prices with bottomless discounts, which resulted to increase their sales around 25 27k units per year, but there after the quantity stayed until the cars demise. How TOYOTA Won the Game? TOYOTAs Improved Production Process TOYOTAs automobile production process provided an enormous push towards the company success. First they methodically reduced the setup time in the automobile assembly line and trained an efficient assembly line work force. In parallel to this they continuously improved the quality of each completed process independently. Initially this quality improvement mechanism was so challenging but with the proper process designing and employee expertise, error rate began to drop dramatically. Once the setup time and assembly line was improved, then TOYOTA implemented JIT (Just-In-Time) to reduce the buffer stocks and inventory levels during the production process. This resulted to accelerate and increase the efficiency of production assembly line process without maintaining surplus inventory. In order to do this TOYOTA maintained a better supplier base by entering in to long-term relationship with major suppliers. From the beginning itself, TOYOTA closely worked with their suppliers, providing them by sharing engineering/management expertise, and even with capital to finance for new investments. As a result of these improvements, TOYOTA could reduce the cost of production along with the high labor productivity and the quality which ultimately gave a greater competitive advantage over the other global automotive competitors. Next step of TOYOTA was to further increase the customer satisfaction. Therefore, TOYOTA continuously conducted customer surveys by using various techniques; they estimated and identified the exact customer preferences. These finding were directly incorporated with their actual automobile design process. TOYOTAs Distribution and Global Expansion After 1983 TOYOTAs first successful joint venture with General Motors, by 2006 TOYOTA represented more than 60% of the total North American sales. In parallel to the US market expansion, TOYOTA made their move in European market as well. By now with TOYOTA has overtaken General Motors and become the largest automobile industry leader in the world. How GM Become the Leader Again? SWOT Analysis of General Motors To have a strategic approach first of all we need to understand companys capabilities clearly. So below I have conducted a SWOT analysis to get a clear picture about the company. According to Capon, (2004:393) SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The strengths and weaknesses of an organization arise from its internal environment, namely resources and their use, structure culture and the tasks carried out by the four functions of business. Which strengths an organization decides to build on and which weaknesses it seeks to minimize depends on the impact of opportunities and threats from the external environment. Below I have categorized the internal and external environment factors for GM. Strengths World-wide Market coverage and Technology potential. Sols with packagers (for different needs). Utilization of core competencies to meet the requirements of specific customer needs. Weaknesses Failure to Make Technology Work Product Design Problems-public Acceptance. For every car that GM sells, $2500 of the profit will go towards paying for the benefits of retired Employees. Still much to Learn about Lean Production-High Cost Production. Opportunities Use of knowledge gained from Joint Ventures. Continue to Build Customer Confidence. Almost all the automotive firms facing the same Economical challenges. Changing Consumer Demand for New Model Types and Styles. Threats Domestic and Foreign Competitors and Other Competitors Fuel Efficient Cars Global Economic Crisis. Unions are powerful and Drive a Hard Bargaining. High R D Cost. By considering the obtainable strengths and opportunities, still GM has several avenues to take over TOYOTA and become the number one in the automobile industry again. But for that, according to my analysis GM has to carefully perform several internal restructuring activities and adjust them to face to the immense competition. Below I have listed down some important steps that GM could follow to get back to the right track during the next 5 years. Products Improvement (Fuel Efficiency Improvement) General Motors (GM) today offers about 20 models with average 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway more than any other manufacturer. General Motors is also considered as the world leader in flex fuel technologies. GM should concentrate following areas during the overall products improvements. Vehicle Quality Improvement General Motors is focused on delivering high-quality and exciting cars, crossovers and trucks to their consumers. GM has substantially overcome the quality gap compared to many competitors. Further improvements especially in warranty problems per vehicle (relative to competition) are expected and such improvements should be taken in to account during the vehicle development process. Design Improvement GM should not cut cost on their products design because customers still expect to look good their vehicles. Further GM can systematically conduct their target market surveys so that they can identify the exact design preferences of their customers. Improve Fuel Efficiency GM should concentrate more Hybrid Cars production. Because by now, gas-electric hybrid cars have now become a practical choice for consumers and it offers so many efficient, innovative and affordable options. Improve Engine Reliability GM had to face number of complaints (especially electrical problems) about recent unreliability vehicle designs. So they must make sure to design their vehicles safety features at least above the average level. Most importantly, especially due to oil crisis and continuous oil prices increments, there is a very good potential market for Extended-Range Electric Vehicles. So if GM could further focus on development of advanced batteries, power electronics, systems integration and manufacturing methods, there would be high chance to dominate these types of new customer segments all over the world. Marketing Strategies At present, GM competes with 8 brands in the United States and out of them Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC represent the companys core brands, accounting for approximately 83% of current sales. So GM should focus considerably all of its product development and marketing resources in support of these core brands. This will result in improvements in awareness, sales, and customer satisfaction for these 4 core brands. Retail Operations (Locations) The other important consideration is GM should take necessary steps to strengthen and further consolidation of GMs dealer network, which will result to get to a more profitable and stronger dealer network. As a distribution issue GM has approximately 6450 dealer locations right now, but the problem is most of their positioning is limited to serve in metropolitan and suburban areas. So GM should reinforce rural areas distribution network as well, which is a significant competitive advantage. Further GM should intend to have the right number of brands, sold by the right number of dealers, in the right locations to obtain maximum profitability for GM and the retailer network. Operational Processes When we closely monitor GMs manufacturing cost, we can see a dramatic declining from $18.4 billion in 2003 to $8.1 billion in 2008. According to the following diagram (Figure 2) you can see the US hourly manufacturing cost reduction over the last few years. Figure 2 Further, this reduction reflects significant productivity improvements. And also, due to post-employment healthcare expense plan reductions, GMs new hires would be as low as $30 $35. This rate would be significantly below the average fully-loaded labor cost for TOYOTA, which public sources indicate is between $45 and $50 per hour. Below chart depicts GMs significant reduction of U.S. salaried employee count over the last few years. So definitely because of these types of operational cost reductions, GMs wages and benefits for both current workers and new hires will be fully competitive with TOYOTA in near future. Further Cost Reductions General Motors various restructuring initiatives over the past few years have been designed to improve its competitive position and ultimately the companys profitability, liquidity and capital structure. However over the past 15 years alone, General Motors (GM) spent over $103 billion on post-employment healthcare and pension expenses. Therefore, GM should plan to reduce the companys structural costs at least by $5 billion annually, or 16%, during the next two years. This would be a significant and important restructuring step to the companys long-term viability. Strategic Alliances and Collaborations In the present business context collaboration is the best option rather than the competition. Therefore going forward, GM should consider and plan to create possible and contributing collaborations such as an IJV (international joint venture) or alliances for the company. According to Daft, (2006) medium and large companies have couple of ways to become involved in international business. One is to seek cheaper sources of supply offshore, which is called outsourcing. Another is to develop markets for finish products outside their home countries, which may include exporting, licensing, and direct investing. These are called market entry strategies because they represent alternative ways to sell products and services in foreign markets. Most firms begin with exporting and work up to direct investment. Exhibit 1.1 shows the strategies companies can use to enter foreign markets. Exhibit 1.1 International journal of business management, (2010) commented that newly established, 3 technology-based firms entering international markets often have limited resources in terms of capabilities, time, and capital. As a consequence, these firms often use entry modes characterized by low resource commitment, including partnership agreements (strategic alliances). What is the Best Marketing Strategy for GM? In this section I have investigate how the partner selection criteria is important for GM when they select a marketing entry strategy. Trust, Relatedness of Business, Access to Networks, Access to Market Knowledge, Reputation Factors should be considered as the five primary concerns when a company selects a partner company to proceed with a collaborative approach. Based on number studies, and according to my own analysis, to regain the market, I suggest GM should proceed with strategic alliances market entry mode. Forging Strategic Alliances and Collaborative Strategies Jeannet and Hennessy, (2004) have clearly justified that the more recent phenomenon is the development of range of Strategic Alliances. Alliances are different from traditional joint ventures, in which two partners contribute a fixed amount of resources and the venture develops on its own. In an alliance, two entire firms pool their resources directly in a collaboration that goes beyond the limits of joint ventures, although a new entity may be formed, it is not a requirement. Sometimes the alliance is supported by some equity acquisition of one or both of the partners. In an alliance, each partner brings a particular skill or resource-usually, they are complementary-and by joining forces, each expects to profit from the others experience. Typically alliances involved distribution access, technology transfers, or production technology, with each partner contributing a different element to the alliance. Daniels, Radebaugh, and Sullivan, (2007) suggest an alliance is a collaborative arrangement in which at least one of the collaborating companies takes an ownership position. In some cases, each party takes an ownership, such as by buying part of each others shares or by swapping some shares with each other. The purpose of the equity ownership is to solidify a collaborating contract, such as a supplier-buyer contract, so that it is more difficult to break-particularly if the ownership is large enough to secure a board membership for the investing company. Production Bases Alliances According to my analysis, GM should proceed with Production Bases Alliances. Jeannet and Hennessy, (2004) pointed out these alliances fall into two groups. First there is the search for efficiency through component linkages, which may include engines or other key components of a car. Second, companies have begun to share entire car models, either by producing jointly or by developing them together. U.S. automobile manufacturers have been very active in creating global alliances with partners, primarily in Japan. Many of these alliances are production based. As a good example, to compete more effectively in the super-small car segment in Europe, Peugeot of France and Toyota of Japan collaborated on the building of a new production plants located in Kolin, Czech Republic by investing about $ 1.5 billion in this facility. The two partners shared the same body design but used exterior modifications to differentiate their models. Both companies carried out their marketing strategies separately, and thus are likely to compete against each other through their own sales and distribution networks. By joining forces, broth manufactures will gain economies in a very price sensitive market segment. If GM collaborates with a leading automobile partner such as TOYOTA or any other, they would also be able to win the competitive advantage through strategic production bases alliances. Problems of Collaborative Arrangements None of these arrangements are not problem-free or perfect approaches. Daniels, Radebaugh, and Sullivan, (2007) shows that although collaborative arrangements have many advantages, some companies avoid them; many arrangements develop problems that lead partners to renegotiate their relationships. Partners might renegotiate responsibilities, ownership, or management structure. In spite of new relationships, many agreements break down or are not renewed at the end of an initial contract period. Collaborations Importance to Partners One partner may give more management attention to a collaborative arrangement than the other does. If things go wrong the active partner blames the less active partner for making lack of attention, and the less active partner blames the more active partner for making poor decisions. Objectives Differences Although companies enter into collaborative arrangements because they have complementary capabilities, their objectives may evolve differently over time. For instance, one partner may want to reinvent earnings for growth and the other may want to receive dividends. One partner may want to expand the product line and sales territory, and the other may see this as competition with its wholly owned operations. A partner may wish to sell or buy from the venture, and the other partner may disagree with the prices. For example, GM has joint venture in Thailand with Fuji Heavy Industries to make and export vehicles to Opel in Germany and Subaru in Japan. Because of disagreements over quality, both companies perform inspections, which is time consuming and expansive, they have even argued over standards of paint jobs. Control Problems By sharing the assets with another, one company may lose some control on the extent or quality of the assets use. Some companies have well known trademarked names that they licence abroad for the production of some products that they have never produced or had expertises. When no single company has control of a collaborative arrangement, the operation may lack direction. At the same time, if one dominates, it must still consider the other company interests. Cultural Differences Companies differ by nationality in how they evaluate the success of their operations. Japanese companies tend to evaluate primarily on how an operation help build its strategic position, particularly by improving its skills. European companies rely more on a balance between profitability and achieving social objectives. This difference can mean that one partner is satisfied while the other is not. In spite of these potential problems, joint ventures from culturally distant countries survive at least as well as those between partners from similar cultures. However as is the marriage, a positive prior relationship between two companies does not guarantee that partners will be well matched in a strategic alliance. Compatibility of corporate cultures also is important in cementing relationship. Conclusion Due to the global economic recession and enormous industry competition, GM lost their industrial leadership to TOYOTA. The secret of its success was their well defined production processes and their high quality customer focused production. By analyzing the GMs presents strengths and opportunities, still GM has the potentiality and own competitive advantage to take over the industry leadership through a strategic approach. I have thoroughly evaluated the situation, especially the best practices and strategic movements of TOYOTA as well as the blunders made by GM during the past few years separately. Then under the How GM becomes the Leader Again topic, clearly I have described all the possible improvements and rearrangements, which need to be applied with a systematic restructuring process to GM. Importantly, this restructuring process requires considerable sacrifices from all stakeholders, dealers, suppliers, employees and executives. During these financial crisis and economic uncertainty challenges, with a proper analysis and understanding GM would be able to open significant number of opportunities with the new strategic restructuring process and innovative products developments in the near future. Then in the final part of the report, I have explained and justified possible strategic market entry approaches that GM can follow to regain the industry leadership again.

Japanese Asset Price Bubble

Japanese Asset Price Bubble Introduction A financial crisis is said to happen when an asset loses a huge part of its face value. This can prompt to an extensive variety of hostile outcomes such as currency crashes, fall in output and as worse as sovereign defaults. Such striking emergencies have been happening since fourth century BC and have proceeded on various scales and levels. Among various crises, the Japanese asset price bubble was one of the greatest financial bubbles in history with incredibly increased stock and real estate prices. It is believed that the Japanese possess an ability to develop what they receive from the Americans. Unfortunately, the Japanese have taken up on crashes as well and made theirs much bigger than that of America. This price bubble broke down in early 1992. The bubble was characterized by rapid increase of asset prices and overheated monetary movement, and additionally an uncontrolled cash supply and credit expansion. All the more particularly, over-confidence and conjecture regarding asset and stock prices had been closely connected with extreme monetary easing policy at that time. By August 1990, the Nikkei stock index had plunged to a large portion of its crest by the time of the fifth monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan. By late 1991, prices of asset started to decline. Despite the fact that asset prices had clearly collapsed by mid 1992, the economys decline proceeded for over 10 years. This decline brought about an enormous aggregation of non-performing assets loans (NPL), bringing on challenges for various financial institutions. The bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble added to what many call the Lost Decade. Main Causes That Led To The Crisis Japans exceptionally traditional society faced substantial changes after they were defeated in the Second World War due, to a limited extent, to the Westernizing impacts of the possessing Allied Forces (Molasky, 1999). Post World War 2, Japans booming export economy and strict fiscal strategies that were intended to encourage household savings brought about a cash surplus in the nations banking framework that in the long run prompted to more lenient lending. The nations solid exchange surpluses and the Plaza Accord in 1985, which sought to debilitate the U.S. dollar against the Yen and German Deutsche Mark, made the Yen currency to appreciate against different currencies, which thus made foreign capital investments comparatively modest for Japanese organizations. The blend of abundance liquidity in the banking system, financial deregulation and the nations export miracle inevitably prompted to overconfidence and over extravagance in Japans economy, which turned into the second biggest economy on the planet after the USA in only a couple of decades. Banks began to take extreme risks that were partly funded by 186 trillion worth of Yen acquired from different capital markets. The Japanese stock price index started to ascend in the early 1980s and kept on ascending to more than five circumstances the 1980 level. Then, from 1990 it started a long stretch of decline with medium-term variations. From 1985 to 1989, Japan saw an increase in Nikkei stock index to 39,000, which was three times of the 1985 level and accounted for more than one third of the worlds stock market capitalization (Economist, 2011). The Japanese land saw similar price movements however with little amplitude. The average land price witnessed an increase an increase that was double the previous price. One year later, in 1991, the land price began to decline. There were various events that are considered responsible for causing the asset price bubble in Japan. Fukao (2001) and Kamigawa (2001) both consider financial deregulation as one of the major factors responsible in creating a favourable environment for a land price bubble, allowing firms to borrow severely in order to invest in commercial real estate, golf courses, private land and golf club memberships for households. The increasing growth in terms of Japanese asset prices is firmly linked with a noteworthy fall in short-term interest rates, between 1986 and 1987. The Bank of Japan had dropped the official discount rate from 5.00% to 2.50%. The official discount rate stayed unaltered until May 30, 1989. Post 1991, the land showed a decline and kept on falling till mid 1998, triggering the quality of loans to the real estate industry to worsen significantly. Besides, collateral value declined as before 1991, borrowers could acquire up to 90% of their land security, which dropped to half from 1991 to 1998, leaving 40% of such credits revealed. Loans to industries with land as their collateral became non-performing, leading to the bad-loan problem of Japanese banks (Hoshi 2001). The value of problem debt was recalculated by Financial Supervisory Agency (FSA) as 123 trillion yen (Lincoln 1998), raising the ratio of bad debt to GDP to 25 percent. Impact of Japanese Asset Price Bubble The years from 1991 to 2000 are referred to as the Lost 10 Years or the Lost Decade in which the Japanese asset price bubble collapsed within its economy. The explosion of the Japanese Asset Price Bubble activated materialization of adverse effects, which made the structural adjustment further arduous, thereby leading to a downward move in growth trend in the 1990s. This further reduced the asset price beyond the boom-bust cycle. It took longer to recover from the impact of these events because the new conditions imposed by the new environment were not favourable to the Japanese management style at that time. In this incident, the economy undesirably failed to resuscitate. Although, in the beginning there was a recovery in spending due to the instantaneous impact of the consumption tax hike wore off. Unfortunately, in late 1997 output toppled again and remained to fall all along the whole year of 1998. Japan had experienced the worst recession due to this downturn. After the consumption tax hike in 1997, the unexpected shock led to a terrible reduction in household spending. Also, in the later part of the year, weakness was aggravated due to the financial factors which consisted of several failures of the large firms as well as the failure of the major banks. Moreover, the increased in crisis in emerging markets of Asia disable external demand which led to additional blow to confidence. Even though there was a shift towards macroeconomic policies yet recession perpetuated 1998. In the beginning of the 1999, the interest rates were taken down to nearly zero and consistent amount of fiscal stimulus embossed fiscal deficit of general government to about 10 percentage of GDP. At last, in 1999 the economy again started to recoup. The turnaround was started by a blast of open venture spending ahead of schedule in the year and recuperation of buyer confidence as compelling activity by the government to manage feeble banks and infuse public capital into the banking system mitigated fears of financial crisis. Nonetheless, a rapid increase in the yen from its low point in mid-1998, connected to a limited extent to external improvements and in addition enhancing sentiment about the Japanese economy, has raised worries about the effect on the still delicate recuperation and prompted to calls for further facilitating of monetary policy even though short-term interest rates are a s of now practically at zero. Furthermore, a wide scale of Japanese economy is until now recuperating from the effects of the 1991 collapse. Japan also lacked in terms of producing a significant level of output per capita. In 1991, Japan had a higher percentage than Australia in real output per capita but unfortunately in 2011 Japan was overpowered by Australia. Japan was a global leader in gross output as well as labour efficiency. However, in a period of 20 years, Japan was overtaken in both the areas. Moreover, it costed them 12 excruciating years for Japans economy to revive back to its original level as was in 1995. Policy Response to The Crisis Initially the Ministry of Finance of Japan implemented a policy that aimed at safeguarding the weak banks through regulatory forbearance as well as other forms of monetary support while buying time for an anticipated revival of the economy and asset prices. The very first bank failure to take place in the post war period in Japan was the crash of Toho Sogo Bank in 1991. This was followed by collapse of other small financial institutions in 1995-1996. However, in those years, the government shelled out JPY 680 billion to help the jusen and non-banking housing loan companies to recover. This policy came under a lot of criticism as it aimed at aiding only the nonbanking financial institutions. In the June of 1996, the Deposit Insurance law was amended to bolster the deposit insurance system that consisted of a brief suspension of limits on deposit protection which was initially till March 2001 but was later extended to 2002 after which it was further prolonged till March 2005. The amendment of the Deposit Insurance Law also led to an increment in the insurance premium from 0.012% to around 0.84% on all deposits that were outstanding. This was primarily done to manage the problems of credit cooperatives instead of the major banks. In the December of 1997, the government declared that up to JPY 30 trillion of public funds will be made accessible to the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan (DICJ) by 1998 March. This consisted of JPY 13 trillion to revitalize the bank balance sheets while JPY 17 trillion were to boost the deposit insurance system. The funds were increased to a total of JPY 60 trillion which was higher than 12% of the countrys GDP to assist the banks in 1998 October. In March 1998, 21 prime banks were rendered with JPY 1.8 trillion to help them meet the requisite capital adequacy standards. Regardless, the government interceded to aid two major banks namely Nippon Credit bank and the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan which had to be provisionally nationalized in October 1998 as they faced difficulty in managing their loan portfolio post the bubble period. However, JPY 1.8 trillion was not sufficient to completely revive the ailing banking system. Thus, the government injected JPY 7.5 trillion more funds into 15 banks by the March of 1999. By the April of 1999, the banking system experienced a little stability for the first time after the lost decade and the Japan Premium reduced considerably. An authorized inspection manual was released by the Financial Regulatory Authority which enforced the banks to endorse stricter asset classification of NPLs. The Bank of Japan decided to implement a zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP), after nearly two decades of stagnant growth rate, to tackle the deflation and boost up the economy. ZIRP is a technique to keep the interest rate close to zero while at the same time triggering economic growth. The Central Bank, under this policy, cannot reduce interest rates anymore thus leaving the traditional monetary policy futile. Thus, the unconventional monetary policy like quantitative easing is used effectively to expand the monetary base. In 1991, the consumption and investment looked promising. The GDP growth rate was up by 3% while the interest rates were secure at 6%. However, after the tumbling of the stock prices in 1992, the Japanese economy experienced stagnation. The Consumer Price Index, a standard to measure inflation rate, fell from 2% to 0% by 1995, at the same time the period interest rates plunged to 0%. Therefore, the ZIRP was unable to revive the economy from deflation and stagnation hence leading japan into a liquidity trap. Despite the unsuccessful run of the ZIRP, this policy is still used in Japan till date. Lessons Learnt and What Could Have Been Done Differently The after math of the crisis led to the zombie decade. An era in the Japanese economy that took years to overcome once the bubble burst. There were many lessons that could be learnt from the collapse of the bubble. These can be classified into two categories. The first one being the lessons that were learnt towards the prevention of the bubble and the second being the lessons learnt from the handling of the bubble. This section will analyse the ramification the bubble had and how such an incident could be avoided in the future. It is always important to gauge the sustainability of economic and financial systems while assessing economic risks. During the bubble period, there was no stress testing when it came to the banking system. This can be seen through the analytical value of risk (VaR) done by Shimizi and Shiratsuka (2000) to predict the magnitude of non-performing assets in the Japanese banking system. It is essential for banks and central banks to perform stress tests to prevent further collapses through the formation of bubbles. Although it is necessary for banks to restructure their debt, it is essential to note that if zombie firms stick around in the market, the shrinkage of the businesses will be lasting. Caballero, Hoshi and Kashyap (2008). The central banks can act pre-emptively when it comes to matters of potential inflationary pressure Bernanke and Gertler (1999). There was an excessive amount of inflationary pressure that existed in the Japanese economy. Taylor (1993) gave the rule, named the Taylor rule as a guide post for central banks to deal with asset price fluctuations. According to the Taylor Rule, the operational target levels of interest rates must be set based on the divergence of the output gap and the inflation rate when held at equilibrium. During the end of the bubble there was an upswing in the money supply and credit and not much attention was given to it. This is an indicator to signal an increase in interest rates; which the Bank of Japan did not pay heed to. Therefore, it is significant to pay close attention to the conduct of the monetary policy in avoiding unpleasantness in the economy. There was a lack of regulation in the part of the government in managing credit risk products. To gauge the extent of a banking crisis, the total amount of loan losses should be aggregated at the earliest. This gives the agencies and policy makers an idea about the extent of the crisis and act accordingly. Fuji and Kawai(2010) suggested that once the value of NPLs has been gauged, recapitalization should be done at a faster rate than it was conducted in Japan. According to Caballero, Hoshi and Kashyap (2008), theoretically, this is possible, but practically it takes longer and most of the publicly funded recapitalization programs need parliamentary/senate approval so at times it is too late as the market developments outpace the recapitalization process. Steps Taken to Prevent Similar Crisis There has been various crises after the crisis in Japan, but the lessons learnt here have been implemented across the world to mitigate the effect of crisis or to prevent them to some extent. Krugman (1998) said that the Japanese Asset Bubble Crisis was like a full dress rehearsal or a blue print for prevention and handling of further crisis. He was right in saying so. The policies and the measures taken were mirrored and implemented across the world, most notably in Sweden, Germany, USA, and England. IMF also departed from its austerity stance for an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. The European Central Bank implemented a series of Quantitative Easing programs. In Sweden, the vice president of the Swedish Central Bank, Riksbank implemented one of the most expansionary monetary policies as a counter to the crisis in the US. The interest rates were dropped from 4.5% to 0.25%. Currently, they are negative, which could be considered as a repercussion of the policy implemented. The quick and unconventional response aided the economy during the time of crisis. Elmer, Nessen, Guibourg, and Kjelleberg(2012) The US and Japan, both have a negative feedback loop when it comes to the economy. Although the economic conditions across the globe were different when both the crisis are compared, but it almost seemed like dà ©jà   vu, when it came to dealing with the crisis. Both countries had taken similar measures, although the US was quicker in implementing it. The USA adopted the policy of public capital injections quicker, thus preventing the crisis from becoming deeper and more severe. On the monetary policy front, the US had been more aggressive in lowering rates. Shirakawa (2008). In 2015, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi implemented quantitative easing. This was done to revitalise the EU economy, wake it up from the slump it was undergoing, to stimulate the depreciating Euro and counter deflation. Although it had many critics, it has been successful and has helped in preventing a full-blown crisis. Conclusion The research study of the crisis suggests that the government of Japan failed in handling the banking sector issues in 1990s in a timely and critical manner since the crisis developed slowly and the gravity of the matter was underestimated. The government had a positive prediction for the growth while no domestic or external pressure prevailed during that time as well as there was a lack of a systematic legal framework to aid ailing banks. However, post the crisis, the authorities became more assertive in dealing with the problems. Several policies were introduced by the government to help revive the economy. They also implemented an extensive legal framework for bank resolution to help the distressed banks. Essentially, deterioration of the real economy can lead to another round of financial crisis, which can further damage the real economy. If the authorities do not address the banking sector problem promptly, then the crisis may prolong, and a full-fledged economic recovery will be significantly delayed. This could result in a lost decade for the economy. References Fujii, K., Fujii, M. and Kawai, M. (2010) ADBI working paper 222 Asian development bank institute. Available at: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/156077/adbi-wp222.pdf (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Fund, I.M. (2000) Post-bubble blueshow Japan responded to asset price collapse. Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/nft/2000/bubble/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Nath, T. (2015) What is Zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP)?, in Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/031815/what-zero-interestrate-policy-zirp.asp (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Bubble burst (no date) Available at: http://www.grips.ac.jp/teacher/oono/hp/lecture_J/lec13.htm (Accessed: 19 February 2017). compuirv (2017) The Japanese deflation myth à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ inflation matters. Available at: http://inflationmatters.com/japanese-deflation-myth/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). JAPANS BUBBLE ECONOMY (1992) Available at: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/bubble.htm (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Japans bubble economy of the 1980s (2017) Available at: http://www.thebubblebubble.com/japan-bubble/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Revolvy, L. (no date) Japanese asset price bubble on Revolvy.Com. Available at: https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Japanese%20asset%20price%20bubbleitem_type=topic (Accessed: 19 February 2017). The causes of the Japanese lost decade: An extension of graduate thesis (no date) Available at: http://daigakuin.soka.ac.jp/assets/files/pdf/major/kiyou/16_keizai3.pdf (Accessed: 19 February 2017).

Dear Mom Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

Dear Mom, You're probably thinking, What is this? I've been in college for four years, and I've never written you a letter. I've sent you a couple of emails that you never checked. Mostly I call, say hello, and hang up. That way you have to call me back, and my phone bill stays small. I'm writing because I have something I need to tell you, but I feel silly saying it. Also, I can be more organized this way. You know how we engineers like everything in its place. Anyway, I need to tell you this because of something tacked on my wall. It's something I believe in, but I've never done anything about it. It's a quote. It goes something like this. Don't waste a single moment you may spend with someone you love. Don't neglect to tell them how important they are and how much you need them, want them, love them... Source unknown Blah. Blah. Blah. Now I'll say what I need to say. Here goes nothing. Do you remember when I told you that Elizabeth gave me the biggest compliment of my life? She told her class that I am her role model. Wow. I'm bringing this up because whenever I think about who my role model is, one person always pops into my head: you. Why, you may ask? I never really thought about it, either. Of course, I can think of plenty of reasons you wouldn't be my role model. Sorry, but I don't really want to be exactly like you, and--ignoring the obvious physical similarities--I don't think I am like you. See, a lot of what I've done in life--much as I would like to deny the fact--has been done because of my grades. I don't need to remind you I was the valedictorian. So was Dad. So was his dad. You were not. In fact, I've seen a couple of your report cards. Don't feel bad. Not everybody tests well. Academ... ... tell me they heard I've joined the Navy. You really need to get that bragging thing under control! What I'm trying to say is, I'm grateful I have such a great mom. It's going to be hard to move away, but you don't make me feel guilty. You always let me know you're proud of me. Well, I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for you. I admire you, and you're my role model because you are such a good mom. I know it's the hardest thing in the world to be. I also know that sometimes I make it harder than it has to be. (No more tattoos. I promise.) Well, that about covers that bullet list. I can't really think of anything else I need to say. Maybe just that I'm incredibly lucky to have a mother I can describe as beautiful, intelligent, kind, and independent. Love, Your daughter P.S. Now you know what it's like to have someone brag about you. Embarrassing, hey?

Womens Sinister Roles in Shakespeares Macbeth :: Free Essay Writer

Women's Sinister Roles in Macbeth      Ã‚  Ã‚   In reading Shakespeare's tragic drama Macbeth, one meets only one good woman - Lady Macduff. The remaining female characters are basically evil. Let's consider mainly Lady Macduff and only briefly the three witches.    Blanche Coles states in Shakespeare's Four Giants that Macbeth's wife had considerable leverage over her husband's mind:    This was her opportunity to do as she had promised herself she would do after she had read the letter - to pour her spirits into his ear, to chasten with the valor of her tongue all that might impede him from the golden crown. We may be sure she took this opportunity to use all her monstrous powers of persuasion. Thus he goaded himself, or was goaded by his wife, into searing the terrible oath, whether he had any clear purpose of keeping it or not. (48-49)    In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson mentions the very wife-like manner in which the queen fulfilled her essential role in the tragedy:    It requires an extraordinary exertion of will and persuasion from Lady Macbeth to strengthen his wavering purpose. Professor Kittredge used to point out to his classes that Lady Macbeth, in urging Macbeth to act, uses the three arguments that every wife, some time or other, uses to every husband: "You promised me you'd do it!" "You'd do it if you loved me!" "If I were a man, I'd do it myself!" But Macbeth's mind is made up by her assurance that they may do it safely by fixing the guilt upon Duncan's chamberlains. (72)    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye shows that a lady is the actual driving force in the play:    That Macbeth is being hurried into a premature act by his wife is a point unlikely to escape the most listless member of the audience, but Macbeth comes to regret the instant of fatal delay in murdering Macduff, and draws the moral that    The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand.    That is, in future he will try to attain the successful ruler's spontaneous rhythm of action. (91)    L.C. Knights in the essay "Macbeth" describes the unnaturalness in the thoughts and words of the plays dominant female force, Lady Macbeth:

Freedom Of Expression Essays -- essays research papers fc

Freedom of Expression: All people in the United States are guaranteed this right by the Constitution. Students, however, do not have this right to the same extent as adults. This is because public schools are required to protect all students at the school. The major aspects of this right are speech and dress. Both the right to speech and dress are not absolute in public high schools. According to the American Civil Liberties Union: "You (students) have a right to express your opinions as long as you do so in a way that doesn't 'materially and substantially' dirsupt classes or other school activities. If you hold a protest on the school steps and block the entrance to the building, school officials can stop you. They can probably also stop you from using language they think is 'vulgar or indecent'("Ask Sybil Libert" ACLU 1998). Public schools can also restrict student dress. In 1987 in Harper v. Edgewood Board of Education the court upheld "a dress regulation that required students to 'd ress in conformity wit hthe accepted standards of the community'"(Whalen 72). This means that schools can restrict clothing with vulgarities and such, but they cannot restrict religious clothing: "School officials must accomodate student's religious beliefs by permitting the wearing of religious clothing when such clothing must be worn during the school day as a part of the student's religious practice"(Whalen 78). Back to Student Rights in Public High Scho...

Organizational Behavior Synthesis paper Essay

The study of people at work is generally referred to as the study of organizational behavior. This chapter will start by defining the term organizational behavior and briefly reviewing its origins. Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations. Each person regularly uses intuition or our â€Å"gut feelings† in trying to explain phenomena. For example, a friend catches a cold and we’re quick to remind him that he â€Å"didn’t take his vitamins†. The field of organizational behavior seeks to replace intuitive explanations such as this example with systematic study. The objective, of course, is to draw more accurate conclusions (Wilson 1994). What does organizational behavior study? Actions (or behaviors) and attitudes. The behaviors that get the bulk of attention in organizational behavior are three, which have proven to be very important determinants of employee performance. They are productivity, absenteeism, and turnover (Wilson 1994). The importance of productivity is obvious. Managers are clearly concerned with the quantity and quality of the work their employees are performing. But absence and turnover are particularly cause for concern because of the adverse affect it may have on an employee ’s productivity. In terms of absence, it’s hard for an employee to be productive if he or she isn’t at work. High rates of employee turnover increase costs and tend to place less experienced people into jobs (Daniels 1994). Organizational behavior is also concerned with employee job satisfaction, which is an attitude. There are three reasons why managers should be concerned with their employees’ job satisfaction. First, there is a link between satisfaction and productivity. Second, satisfaction appears to be negatively related to absenteeism and turnover. Third managers have a humanistic responsibility to provide their employees with jobs that are challenging and rewarding (Daniels 1994). The second part of organizational behavior’s definition that needs to be explained is â€Å"organization†. For our purposes organizational behavior is specifically concerned with work-related  behavior-and that takes place in organizations. An organization is a formal structure o f planned coordination, involving two or more people, in order to  achieve a common goal (Daniels 1994). Organizational behavior is about studying and understanding people and human nature. Do employee ever make efforts on behalf of their employing organization’s interests or fellow employees’ interest when it is not in their direct self-interest to do so? This question exists in any organization must be address. The problem addressed here is a conflict of self-interest. The question here should be very interesting to people in organization. People should try to understand and address counterintuitive behavior in certain situation (Young 1998). For instance, why does moral hazard exists in organization? Organizational behavior success or failure depends on its goal setting, such as group cohesiveness and productivity. In a case study of 2 groups several researchers have suggested that goal acceptance moderates the relationship between group cohesiveness and group productivity. In Study 1, goal acceptance was found to moderate the relationship between group cohesiveness and the quantity of performance of 40 machine crews in a paper mill located in the north eastern United States. In Study 2, the extent to which leaders fostered the acceptance of group goals was found to moderate the relationships between group cohesiveness and quantitative measures of group productivity in 71 insurance agency units located throughout the United States. The companies’ success or failure in this study will be explained in organizational behavior (Jacob 1985) Goals of Organizational Behavior The field of most organizational behavior has an amount of common goals. In order to reach these goals, people need to effectively predict, explain, and manage the behavior that occurs in our organizations. In order to change behavior, one needs to accept that any behavior is rational and logical to the person exhibiting it because his or her goals may differ from others. If an organization is able to predict which reward systems is most effective in motivating the employees, then one can explain the reasons for this effectiveness and describe how managers can enforce effective reward systems. Our everyday lives are about predictions. Predicting the behavior in an organization is usually wondering â€Å"when people will make ethical decisions, create innovative products, or engage in sexual harassment† (Johns 1996).  The behavior in our organizations licenses us the prediction of its future circumstance. Predictions are not always accurate, however. The field of organizational behavior offers a â€Å"Scientific foundation† (Johns 1996). That helps upgrade predictions of these events. But, being able to predict these organization behaviors do not guarantee a hundred percent that he can explain the reason why this particular behavior had developed. A manger needs to be able to get things accomplished, reach all goals, take control, and knows everything that is going on in their company I know that there varieties of management styles to be effective, depending on the situation. There are some cases when a manager acts without investigation, just looking for that quick solution to solve a problem usually results in an unhappy ending. If an organizational behavior â€Å"Can be predicted and explained, it can often be controlled or managed† (Johns 1996). A great manager would be able to predict a certain behavior and have an act on it before it’s too late. Remember, our lives would be more easier if we anticipate when our friends are anger, what our professors expect out of us, and whose lying and telling the truth, â€Å"Regardless of who we are our actions are in response to a variety of motivations† (Wilson 1994). When one understands, one will understand human behavior. Use the predicting. Explaining, and managing principles, and any manger will have the ability to reach your goals through the efforts of others. The four goals of organizational behavior are: 1. To describe systematically how people behave under variety of conditions 2. To understand why people behave as they do 3. To predict future employee behavior 4. to control & develop human activity at work Theory X and Theory Y Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behavior,organizational communication and organizational development. They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation. Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes. There are two kinds of reinforcement, positive and negative. â€Å"Positive reinforcement causes a behavior to increase because a desired, meaningful consequences follows the behavior. Negative reinforcement causes a behavior to increase in order to escape or avoid some unpleasant consequence† (Daniels 1994). Models of Organizational Behavior There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of, Autocratic, Custodial, Supportive, and Collegial (Cunningham, Eberle, 1990; Davis ,1967): o Autocratic — The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal. Custodial — The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation. Supportive — The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives. Collegial — The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm. Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models. The first model, autocratic, has its roots in the industrial revolution. The managers of this type of organization operate mostly out of McGregor’s Theory X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor’s Theory Y. They have each evolved over a period of time and there is no one best model. In addition, the collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the beginning of a new model or paradigm. References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y http://www.csupomona.edu/~msharifzadeh/chapter1.html http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadob.html http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Oli-Per/Organizational-Behavior.html